Crested Porcupine

Crested Porcupine
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Character Data
Also known as: African Porcupine Japanese Name: アフリカタテガミヤマアラシ Romanised Name: Afurika Tategami Yamaarashi First Featured in: Kemono Friends (2015 Game)
Animal Data
Scientific Name: Hystrix cristata Distribution: Italy, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa Diet: Herbivore Average Lifespan in the Wild: 12-15 Years Read More: Crested porcupine Conservation Status:

Crested Porcupine​

Anime​

Festival​

Pavilion​

KF3​

Nexon Game​

Gallery

The Crested Porcupine is type of porcupine Friend that has made minor appearances in both the Kemono Friends anime and the original Kemono Friends game.

Appearance

Really, really pretty.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role

In Real Life

Crested porcupines, distributed from southern Italy to northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, are the world's largest porcupines. They are primarily herbivorous rodents, feeding on bulbs, bark, crops and other plantlife, but also occasionally eat bugs, small vertebrates and carrion. Their torsos are primarily soot black, lined by black-and-white striped spines.

Like all members of the family Hystricidae, the crested porcupine is covered in fearsome quills of varying lengths and thickness which provide it highly effective protection against other animals. When engaged by predators, it raises the roughly foot-long quills along its head and back into a crest (hence its name), giving it a larger and more intimidating appearance. If this does not deter its assailant, the crested porcupine has a wide array of survival skills at its disposal enabling it to evade predation, from simple intimidation tactics to aggressive offensive maneuvers. The rodent's highly defended hindquarters can even be used as a lethal weapon as it charges foes by running backwards and ramming them with their quills.

Despite the physical challenges of mating (i.e. their quills), this species of porcupine is monogamous, giving birth to a litter of 1-4 "porcupettes" following a pregnancy cycle lasting just under 4 months every year. Crested porcupettes are born into special, grass-lined underground birth chambers within their elaborate subterranean burrow systems. Although they live in family units in their burrows, each grown family member forages for food on the surface by themselves. The crested porcupine is a tough rodent capable of both providing for and defending itself.

Distributed across a wide area, adaptable and well defended against predation by other animals, the crested porcupine is classified by the IUCN as "Least Concern". However, they are still subject to inhumane treatment in some regions, being killed for their quills for usage in ornaments or traditional medicines or hunted illegally by farmers who see them as a pest for eating their cultivated crops.

Trivia

• Her Japanese character card translates her name as "African Porcupine", but this is likely an error -- there is no such thing as an African Porcupine, although the Crested Porcupine's range includes much of the African continent.